Arms of Ethiopia’s Regime Surveillance Network Reaches Washington DC

The TPLF/EPRDF regime of Ethiopia exports spies and thugs to Washington DC to harass and weaken the organizational capacity of Oromos in diaspora. It is becoming very common in Washington DC to see Ethiopia’s surveillance against Oromo-American Citizens in action. The government uses poor, illiterate and semi literate collaborators; pays them salaries in US dollars, puts them in suits and Hondas, and decent housing in DC, Virginia and Maryland so they can conduct surveillance on the Oromo people. These spies have attempted and occasionally succeeded in infiltrating Oromo institutions in the Washington DC area. They lurk within these institutions and sabotage them and also sabotage events planned by community organizations.

Oromo Center, located in Northwest Washington DC, is infested with Ethiopian government spy network and collaborators. By justifying it as being inclusive and welcoming to all Oromos, some of the Oromo Center leaders have granted access to agents of Ethiopian government who use the Center’s basement to organize and plan actions to weaken the Oromo diaspora. As part of a propaganda and espionage work conducted by the agents sent by Ethiopian government, heads of these spy networks and mafias such as Dasalegn Taferra, Berhanemeskel and Cherer conduct espionage and seminars on behalf of the Ethiopian government in Oromo Center’s basement. They play cards of regionalism and not knowing Afan Oromo or being mixed.

In recent weeks, the surveillance mission led by Dasalegn Teferra and his associates has engaged in harassing Oromo-American citizens at the Center. These harassment include following Oromo visitors to the Center around in cars and blocking their way, calling 9-11 and attempting to get one Oromo person arrested by police. In an incident that occurred on May 23, a day before Ethiopia’s election, Desalegn Teferra followed a prominent Oromo leader from Upshur Street North West and Georgia to Park and Georgia street. The police arrived after the call from Desalegn Teferra who falsely claimed that an Oromo leader was threatening to “kill him” in order to get him arrested. This was an attempt by an Ethiopian spy to trick DC police into carrying out arbitrary arrest just like he is used to get Oromos arrested in Ethiopia by calling TPLF soldiers and security agents on them.

In a persistent attempt to incite violence, Deselgn Teferra and his group arrived at Oromo Center on June 5 again, but they did not get the reaction they wanted.

The head of spy network has a track-record of causing problems in Oromo communities. In 2014, he tried to saboatage the human right rally organized by the Oromo Community Organization by trying to cancel the rally and schedule another rally controlled by him. After failing to do that, he he was seen at the May 9, 2014 rally shouting slogans against Ethiopian government and even gave interviews.

Last year when Oromo students were massacred in Ambo and across Oromia, Desalegn Teferra and his co-workers were at the Oromo Center defending the Ethiopian delegation sent to the area to deny the killings. Unfortunately, one Oromo center leader clearly endorsed the group and always tries to defend them instead of preventing them from using a a venue that is funded by donations from Oromo community members who do not want to sit, dine and be spied on by Ethiopia’s regime agents in the house they fund.

Desalegn and his co-workers managed to create splinters in Oromo Youth Self-help Association with a goal of weakening Oromo activism in the area. The group is focused on weakening the organizational capacity of Oromo youth (Qeerroo) and community in the DMV area in particular and in the US diaspora in general.

Then the Ethiopian government recalled Desalegn to return to Ethiopia to report on his surviellance mission in the DMV area. He was sent back to the DC area with another mission prior to the conduct of the 2015 elections. Daslagen Teferra admits and boasts that he has frequent access to Menelik’s palace proving that he works for the Ethiopian government. He was also sitting in the front row with Abbay Tsehaye who threatened to kill Oromos who oppose the implementation of the Addis Ababa Master plan.

Contrary to its goals to promote Oromo interests, the Oromo Center has been hijacked and is serving as surveillance spot for Ethiopian government spies who harass members there. Keys were given to some of them to access the building or they well let in by the Center’s leader to organize and conduct propaganda teachings in Amharic to corrupt the minds of the youth.